


Panda Ball Penguin

by china_shop



Series: Waltzverse [16]
Category: White Collar
Genre: Asexual Character, Background Peter/Elizabeth/Neal, Coming Out, F/F, F/M, Family, Future Fic, Multi, Polyamory Negotiations, Threesome - F/F/M, Video & Computer Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-28
Updated: 2015-10-28
Packaged: 2018-04-28 14:37:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5094377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/china_shop/pseuds/china_shop
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’d spent his whole life coming out about his three parents, but <em>their</em> arrangement—equilateral poly-monogamy—was simple compared to this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Panda Ball Penguin

**Author's Note:**

> Many, many thanks to mergatrude and Cyphomandra for beta, and to Sherylyn for Ameripicking. *all the hearts*

“They’re going to be weird.” Mikey added fresh herbs and toasted seeds to the big bowl of salad. “It’s not too late to cancel. I’ll message Mom and say you’ve got the flu. Mega-contagious flu. Compulsory quarantine.”

“They’d send in a rescue copter to pull you out,” said Seo-yun. “And you know, if you’d told them about us before, you wouldn’t be having this meltdown now.”

Coral came and leaned in the doorway behind her. “Peng’s right. You’re the one who’s being weird. Anyone would think you’re embarrassed by us.”

She was teasing, but Mikey blushed anyway. He turned to stir the curry. “They’re my parents. They’re always weird.”

He’d moved in with Seo-yun and Coral while Mom, Dad and Papa were on their annual pilgrimage to France—their first without him, and they’d extended their stay to a month and a half, spending their usual two weeks in Paris and the other four touring the Loire Valley, Bordeaux and Provence with Mozzie and Aunt Sara. They’d gotten back two days ago, and having them over for dinner had seemed like the simplest way to tell them about the relationship, like once they _saw_ Mikey with Coral and Seo-yun, he wouldn’t have to spell it out. They already knew Seo-yun from years ago, and it wasn’t like triads were a new concept to them or anything, even if it was a different kind of triad, so he’d convinced himself it wasn’t that big of a deal, but now that their arrival was imminent, he was having major second thoughts.

It wasn’t that they weren’t supportive; they were _too_ supportive. Like, when he’d brought Jules home for Thanksgiving, his first year of college, Mom welcomed her like a long lost daughter, and Dad asked a million questions about her parents and her studies until Papa elbowed him and muttered about interrogations and bad habits. And then Papa tried to be cool and talk to Julia about music, but he hadn’t even heard of 5beat or retro-groovehop. So that was completely unbearable. And the next year, when Mikey brought Xav home had been _worse_ , with Dad and Papa falling over themselves to prove how queer-friendly (and queer) they were, until even Mom was facepalming at the table. Mikey shuddered, remembering.

“It’ll be cool,” said Seo-yun, from by his right shoulder.

“We’ll love you, whatever happens,” said Coral, over his left, with more conviction. She was nearly a foot shorter than him and had to tug him down to kiss him. He would have forgotten about dinner and taken her to bed then, but there wasn’t time.

Seo-yun just punched him supportively on the arm, and said, “How much are you going to tell them?”

She was nervous too. Mikey put the lid back on the curry and folded his arms so he wouldn’t scoop her into a hug. “I don’t know. How much do you want me to?”

She shrugged and picked a cherry tomato out of the salad, but didn’t eat it. She licked the dressing off and balanced it on the back of her hand.

Coral stole the tomato and ate it. “Why don’t we play it by ear?”

“Sure, fine.” Mikey put on his game face. He did not want to talk to his parents about sex, but he didn’t want Seo-yun and Coral to think their arrangement was a shameful secret, either. Ugh. Why had this seemed like a good idea? He could have gone home to Brooklyn to see his parents, instead of inviting them here. Or told them from a safe distance when he messaged them in France to say he was moving out.

But they’d want to see where he was living, make sure he was comfortable and safe. However awkward Mikey felt about the impending conversation, he knew they only wanted the best for him.

“I don’t know what you’re so worried about,” said Seo-yun as if she could hear his thoughts. She scowled and patted his back, leaving her hand there for nearly three seconds, so that for a moment he forgot about everything else and grinned at her.

 

*

 

When Mikey met Seo-yun at the UFO show eleven years ago, she was bossy and talkative and sure of herself, deciding they were friends without any hesitation, and for nearly a year after that, they had been. They’d shared a mutual Panda Ball Penguin obsession, spending whole weekends exploring the game together, comparing strategies, collecting virtual mountains of bamboo (for the panda) and fish (for the penguin), and figuring out the menu options. But then Mikey got on the track team and stopped playing games so much, and Seo-yun’s family moved to California in 2027. For a few months, they kept messaging occasionally; then SplashBoard had its hacking scandal and shut down its servers, and after that, Mikey kind of forgot about her, his life overflowing with school and school friends and family vacations. He majored in Culture and Climate at NYU, worked for Mozzie in the breaks, graduated and got a job with a small travel-tech company making customized seamless app-bundles. Then, out of nowhere, Seo-yun included him in a group message to say she was moving back to the city to work in game dev.

He wrote back, curious to know what she’d been doing for the last ten years, and online she was just the same: forthright and enthusiastic. She had a girlfriend, Coral, who was coming with her to New York, and Seo-yun’s aunt had managed to score them a rent-controlled apartment in Koreatown through friends of friends. 

Seo-yun’s Phi iD profile was crowded with game characters, including the penguin from Panda Ball Penguin, which made Mikey laugh. 

“Say hi to your parents from me,” she wrote. “Do you still go to the UFO show?”

“Not in years,” he wrote back. “Message me when you get in, & I’ll buy you a drink to celebrate your return.”

Two weeks later, they met in a bar near the Park. Mikey literally almost didn’t recognize her. He’d expected just a taller version of the skinny eleven-year-old kid she’d been when she left New York. Well, she was still pretty thin, but she’d grown some curves since then, plus she had short blue-green, anime-mermaid hair, held back with three little glow-clips, and she was wearing a spiky black tank top, blue pajama pants and flip-flops. She dropped into the empty seat beside him and said, “It’s me, I’m here. Try to contain your excitement.”

“I’ll do my best,” said Mikey, trying not to stare. “Hey, stranger.” They ordered beers from the table display, and at first it was weird—Seo-yun was all West Coast cool, and the ten years apart seemed like ten light years between them—but by the second round of drinks, she was telling gross-out stories about the customers at her uncles’ ice cream parlor in San Diego and trying to get Mikey to do the old magic tricks Papa had taught him when he was a kid. She clapped in delight when he made a paper-napkin swan disappear, and she looked like herself again, her dark eyes gleaming with enthusiasm. Mikey grinned at her across the table. 

Pretty soon, drinks turned into a night-time picnic in the Park. Coral came to join them, and the two of them barely touched, but Mikey could see they were really into each other—making eye contact and cryptic allusions, and cheerfully disagreeing about whether New York had improved since the twenties. By the end of the evening, Mikey was in love with both of them: intense, self-assured Seo-yun with her prickly sense of humor, and Coral, short and round with her careless blonde ponytail, geeky t-shirt and warm, easy laugh. 

Seo-yun had apparently inducted Coral into the arcane ways of Panda Ball Penguin—”I still carry it with me everywhere I go,” said Seo-yun, pulling an ancient, battered Samsung phone out of her shoulder bag. “You never know when it might ping.”—and they called each other Peng-yun and Co-ball.

“What about the panda?” said Mikey. “The panda needs love too.”

“He’s volunteering,” Coral told Seo-yun with a grin.

“You think?” Seo-yun considered Mikey skeptically. 

He nodded, trying not to look too eager, but unable to shake the vision of himself as a big, goofy panda rolling through the jungle, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Or the much more enticing vision of taking them both to bed.

“You’re right, he’s practically drooling,” Seo-yun told Coral. “He probably wouldn’t be so excited if he knew I was ace.”

“She’s not really a toucher,” said Coral, confidingly. “Most of the time.”

“Hugs on birthdays and holidays. Why is that not enough for you?” Seo-yun threw up her hands in comical incomprehension.

Coral grinned and flicked water at her from the condensation on her beer bottle. “I know, I know. I’m so needy and weird.”

Seo-yun sent Mikey a sidelong glance, testing his reaction, and said to Coral, “Well, that’s why we have an open relationship. So you can be needy and weird with other people.”

“Definitely volunteering,” said Mikey, feeling strangled and swamped with wanting—not just Coral, but to be part of their game. To be the panda to their penguin and ball.

Coral laughed and looked away, blushing, and Seo-yun rolled her eyes and kicked Mikey’s ankle, and for a moment Mikey thought he’d blown it. 

Then he had a brainwave. “Have you ever tried Panda Ball Penguin in three-player mode? I’ve still got my old Tesla FTL somewhere.”

“Ooh,” breathed Seo-yun, her eyes widening with excitement like she was ten years old again.

“Genius,” said Coral, grinning at her. “Five thousand points and a gold star, ding-ding-ding.”

So Mikey took a cab home, snuck into the house without waking his parents and spent thirty-five minutes silently ransacking his room for the FTL, eventually discovering it in the secret compartment of his old globe, and then took the subway to Seo-yun and Coral’s apartment in Koreatown. He half-expected them to refuse him entry or to be asleep, but Coral let him in on the first buzz, and when he brandished his FTL (and the charging cord, which he’d miraculously remembered to shove in his pocket), she grabbed him by the shirt and raised up and kissed him, both of them smiling too wide for it to be a real kiss.

Mikey dropped the phone and put his hands on her waist under her t-shirt, the smoothness of her skin singing under his fingers, and he kissed her again, serious and questioning now, forgetting all about PBP and everything else, and she pressed against him and slid her arms around his neck and parted her lips against his. 

They were still making out—and Mikey’s shirt was halfway unbuttoned—when Seo-yun came in wearing a backwards baseball cap and carrying a huge bowl of rainbow popcorn, but she didn’t seem to care. She put the bowl on the coffee table and pounced on Mikey’s FTL. “You found it! This is going to be epic! Save the smooching for later, okay?”

“Later,” agreed Coral, smirking at Mikey.

They had to plug in the FTL and Coral’s old phone before either would start, and Coral’s battery wouldn’t hold a charge, so she was going to have to play leashed to a powerboard, but first Seo-yun tethered the three ancient devices, swearing under her breath and then sounding a triumphant, “Ha! Three-player mode, ding-ding-ding!”

She gave Mikey back his phone, with the PBP splash page showing: the panda and penguin waving, and the ball bouncing up and down between them, as Japanese characters marched along the bottom of the screen. The FTL was smaller and heavier than he remembered, the controls fiddly compared to when he’d had twelve-year-old hands, and for a second, he was sure he was going to crash and burn. He sat on the floor, leaning against the couch, and thumbed through the menus, hoping it would come back to him. 

Coral sat down between him and the powerboard, her shoulder brushing his. “Remind me how this goes,” she said to Seo-yun, who took the chair opposite, by the window. “I haven’t played in ages.”

As Seo-yun gave a cursory explanation, Mikey half-remembered/half-figured out how to give the panda a purple vest and sunglasses, and his brain came back online. He knew this game. It was hard-wired in his synapses. 

They started, and he sent the panda into the hallway just as the penguin appeared in a green fez. A few seconds later, the ball bounced along wearing a silly grin, and then they were off. They went downstairs in a confusing jumble—the penguin sliding down the bannister, and the panda and ball rolling down, bump-bump-bump, and by the time they burst into the living room, he _was_ the panda, nostalgic and new, exploring the game world with Peng-yun, who he’d known forever, and Co-ball, who bounced around like an old-school pinball and kept up a wry commentary on the actions of the others. Mikey nudged his shoulder against hers, and she elbowed him IRL and ricocheted off his head onscreen to get to the candy-heart reward on the ceiling.

They played all night, and even though Coral’s old phone kept crashing, they managed to unlock a level none of them had heard about before—at the bottom of the ocean, with octopuses and sharks and a shipwreck guarded by poison-dart-spitting anemones, all of which they had to dodge and outswim to get to the pirate chests full of bamboo, fish and candy hearts. 

“So damned epic!” said Seo-yun. “How is this game not world famous?! There should be theme parks!” 

“Definitely,” said Mikey. “And a movie franchise. And, more importantly, I should be able to get it for my Flex10.”

Coral sighed. “It’s tangled up in some complicated IP rights issue no one understands. It sucks.”

“So much,” said Seo-yun. “One day, I’ll get it running on a decent platform in my secret lair. One day when I have a secret lair.”

At dawn Mikey messaged his parents to say he was staying at a friend’s place. Then he and Coral went to bed and undressed each other, giggling and clumsy from sleep dep, and she moved over him and around him, and it was hot and easy. With her and Seo-yun, he was the person he wanted to be, without even trying.

For the next couple of weeks, Coral and Seo-yun let him keep hanging around. Coral bought the toothpaste he liked and kissed him whenever he showed up at their door, and eventually cleared out a drawer in her dresser for him, and Seo-yun stopped putting cauliflower in her curries and tried calling him Pan-ky for a while, a smush of Panda and Mikey (it didn’t stick). Finally one night they all shared a bottle of lemon-mint vodka and played a selection from Seo-yun’s vast cache of games, and just before midnight Seo-yun said drunkenly, “Coral wants you to move in.”

Coral hit her with a cushion, and Mikey lost track of the game and got shot by a T-Rex. He took off his game glove and fiddled with the cuff. “What do you want?” he asked Seo-yun, trying to sound cool and casual.

She shrugged, and for a second he thought she was going to say, “I don’t care,” and then what would he do? Papa had told him a hundred times that, when he’d fallen in love with Mom and Dad, it was never one or the other, always both; that part of what he loved about them was their togetherness. Mikey had usually made a face and balked at the cheesiness of it, but that was exactly how he felt about Seo-yun and Coral now. Like they belonged together, and as much as he cared about Coral and enjoyed getting with her, he didn’t want her to annoy Seo-yun for him. 

But Seo-yun shrugged and said, carelessly, “I don’t know, I like having you around too.”

Only it wasn’t really careless. She darted a glance at him, and she was hardly breathing. Waiting to see what he’d say.

He tried to get his thoughts to line up. “What if I more than like you? Both of you. And I don’t mean—I mean, like you the way you are.”

“What are we actually talking about here?” said Coral, who seemed significantly more sober than the others. “I mean, we can’t actually be a threesome—”

“Triad,” said Mikey.

“The bed isn’t big enough,” said Coral. She and Seo-yun shared a king-sized bed when Mikey wasn’t around, close enough to talk, but enough space they could sleep without touching. When Mikey was there, he and Coral usually slept tangled up naked in the small double in the spare room, their arms around each other.

“Why would Mikey and I share a bed?” said Seo-yun. “We don’t now.”

Coral huffed, her cheeks going red. “So I have to choose between you every night—Peng-yun or Panda—and someone always gets left out? That’s not fair.”

Seo-yun topped up her shot-glass with vodka and passed the bottle to Mikey. “I don’t mind being left out,” she said. “Most of the time, anyway. You guys can call me up from your steamy sex-bed to say goodnight.”

“I don’t believe you!” Coral slammed her own shot-glass onto the wooden floor and stood up. “You’ve just been humoring me up till now, and now you’ve decided you’ve had enough? You’re actually kicking me out of our bed?!”

“I don’t _think_ that’s what I said,” said Seo-yun, blinking. “It’s not what I meant.”

But either Coral wasn’t listening or she wasn’t convinced. She covered her face with her hands and turned away, shoulders heaving. Seo-yun and Mikey swapped worried looks, and Seo-yun waved him toward Coral, but he shook his head. This was between the two of them. 

Seo-yun sighed silently, clambered unsteadily off the couch and went to Coral. Patted her shoulder. “I thought you’d like it better,” she muttered, so quietly that Mikey could hardly make out what she was saying. “You could be needy and weird together, instead of being all hug-deprived with me.”

“It’s not weird,” said Coral through her hands, muffled but fierce. “None of us is weird! We’re just us, how we are.”

“Okay,” agreed Seo-yun hastily. “You’re right, Co-ball.”

Coral dropped her hands, her eyes red and watery. Mikey wanted desperately to comfort her, but he stayed where he was. “I love you,” she told Seo-yun. “And now I love Mikey. And I don’t know how to make you both _fit_ , but I’m not never sleeping in our bed again. There’s too much—” She took a shaky breath. “It was so much easier when it was just us and the occasional random.”

“Do you want me to leave?” asked Mikey. His heart was in this throat, and if either of them said yes, he might end up as much of as mess as Coral, but he was determined he’d make it out their front door first. They wouldn’t need to know.

Seo-yun sent him a betrayed look. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“I don’t _want_ to,” said Mikey. “I’m trying to help.”

“No, she’s right,” said Coral. She sniffed. “I’m just—Vodka was a bad idea.”

“Should have gone with rainbow berry liqueur,” said Seo-yun. “Especially the green layer. Are you okay?”

Coral nodded, and Seo-yun patted her again.

“Okay, so we need to warp time and space or clone you, so you can sleep in two places at once.”

“Would you.” Mikey downed a mouthful of vodka for luck and courage. “We could fit another bed into your room. There’s space for a twin.”

“Or draw up a roster,” said Seo-yun. “Alternating days.”

“Are we still not-exclusive?” said Coral. “Because if so, alternating days gets complicated.” She came back to the couch and sat on Mikey’s lap. “What do you want?”

“I want you both to be happy,” he told her. “And you were before you met me, so I don’t want to mess that up.”

“The panda leaves a trail of destruction,” said Seo-yun, with a wry grin. “It’s part of his charm.”

“Hey!” said Mikey. “I guess—not-exclusive sounds good in the long run, but I’d like a couple more weeks of just us first, to settle in. And I don’t mind having a separate room if that’s what works. I’m used to it. But—”

Coral poked him in the chest. “But?”

“All of us sharing a room sometimes might be fun,” said Mikey, carefully. He wasn’t sure if Seo-yun would be comfortable letting him into her space that much, whether she trusted him. “Being together.”

“We could have a sex bedroom and a no-sex bedroom,” said Coral, looking to see what Seo-yun thought.

“What if you end up sleeping alone in the sex bedroom?” said Seo-yun. 

“Compulsory jerking off,” said Mikey, making Coral giggle. 

Even Seo-yun grinned. She plonked down on the beanbag and kicked Mikey’s ankle. “If you can handle a no-touching romance, then okay. We can try it like that.”

“It still means you’ll have to choose sometimes,” Mikey told Coral.

“You too,” she said.

“I will never have to choose,” said Seo-yun, smugly. “One bed to rule them all.” She poured another round of vodka shots, and they solemnly clinked glasses, and then Seo-yun put her game glove back on and resumed play as if nothing had happened. 

The next morning, Mikey made endless blueberry pancakes for breakfast, to prove his worthiness, and as he was leaving that afternoon, Seo-yun gave him a swipekey to the apartment, and Coral kissed him long and sweet and snuck her hands under his t-shirt. A week later, he moved in.

But it was still hard to explain to other people. He’d spent his whole life coming out about his three parents, but _their_ arrangement—equilateral poly-monogamy—was simple compared to this, and mostly Mikey was too tired and busy to put his new relationship into words. When he told a couple of friends at the travel company where he worked, Frey said, “So, wait, you have a girlfriend and… her roommate?” and Jaz said, “How is it different from being friends?” and Mikey could hardly say that Seo-yun’s letting him sleep in the no-sex bedroom was the difference. And the way she’d punch him on the arm or, occasionally, if he was sitting on the floor leaning on the couch next to her, rest her foot against his hip. That the private jokes that used to be shared just between Seo-yun and Coral included him too now. That their home was his home. 

Frey and Jaz wouldn’t understand.

 

*

 

Dad was first in the door. “Hey, champ!” He grabbed Mikey and hugged him hard. “We missed you. Are you well? Everything good?”

“Hi, baby!” Mom crowded in too, and Papa, both of them engulfing him and Dad into a group hug. “You know you could have waited to move out till we got back, young man, so you could tell us in person,” Mom added, but she was tanned and smiling, and she kissed his cheek, so he knew she wasn’t really mad.

“We get it,” said Papa. “A lot can happen in six weeks. It’s good to see you, buddy.”

“You too,” said Mikey, and for a moment, he got a lump in his throat knowing there’d be no more midnight talks in the kitchen when Mikey got home late and Papa was still up reading. No more Saturday brunches with the four of them sitting around teasing each other and planning out the rest of the weekend. No more—

“Hi,” said Coral. “I’m Coral. Let me take your coats. You must be—”

“MM, MD and MP,” said Seo-yun from over by the window.

“Mikey’s mom, Mikey’s dad, and Mikey’s papa,” translated Papa, pointing to each of them in turn. “Hi, Seo-yun. Long time, no see.”

Coral was shaking hands with Mom and Dad in a casual, newly-introduced, half-friend-half-family kind of way, but she turned to watch as Papa went to greet Seo-yun. 

“I don’t shake,” said Seo-yun, sticking her hands in her pockets. “Or hug. But it’s good to see you, MP. You haven’t changed at all.”

“Kind of you to lie.” Papa winked and let his outstretched hand fall to his side. “So you’ve finally moved back to the best city in the world. I like the hair. What else have you been doing with yourself?”

“Oh, the usual,” said Seo-yun airily. “Went to college, fell in love with a girl, got into game dev, moved back to New York, fell in love with a boy. That’s pretty much me.” From the lightness of her tone and her casual reference to emotions, it was clear she was comfortable with Papa’s greeting. 

That made Coral more relaxed too. “Come in, sit down,” she told Mom and Dad. “Mikey, how long till dinner?”

“Ten minutes,” said Mikey. “I should check on the curry—” He started for the kitchen.

“Wait,” said Mom. “So, just to clarify, are you all roommates, or—?”

Mikey put his arm around Coral and included Seo-yun in his glance, hoping to get it out of the way quickly. “We’re together.”

“All three of us,” said Coral.

Naturally, Mom ignored Mikey’s silent plea that she just accept it and move on. She looked from him and Coral, standing together, to Seo-yun on the other side of the room with her hands tucked away, assessing them. “A triad?”

“Yeah, but not like you guys,” said Mikey. “Seo-yun is ace.” She didn’t need to know about them being open too.

“Ace is asexual?” said Dad, his eyebrows going up. “I didn’t realize that meant no touching.”

“Not by definition.” Seo-yun’s chin jutted. “I’m a low-tactile, bi-romantic asexual.”

Mom tilted her head and gave Seo-yun and Coral her best smile, the warm one that made her eyes light up. “Great. I just wanted to get that cleared up, since Mikey seems to have forgotten how to make a phone call or write an email. So long as you’re all happy, we’re happy for you. Congratulations!”

“No one emails anymore, Mom.” He rolled his eyes.

“And it’s great to meet you, Coral. Are you from New York?” Dad was towering over her. He was the same height as Mikey, but she looked tiny next to him and was clearly about to be interrogated.

“Dad!”

“Dad’s fine,” said Mom. “He’s making conversation. Chill, sweetie.” She bundled Mikey into the kitchen. “What are you making? Oh, this smells great. Did you put fennel in the salad?”

“Yeah, and sunflower seeds.” Mikey cast an anxious glance at the living room doorway but went to check on the curry. “How was your vacation?”

Mom laughed wryly. “Between you, me and the rice cooker, I am never traveling with Mozzie and Sara again. They couldn’t agree about anything. Ask them which way’s up, you’d get two different answers.”

“Moz and Sara?” asked Papa, coming into the kitchen. “They agree about everything. They just enjoy arguing. Here, Mikey—your housewarming gift, direct from France.” He produced a bottle of Champagne Krug with a flourish.

“Nice,” said Mikey. “Should I open it now or save it?”

“That’s up to you. Are you an ant or a grasshopper?”

Mom laughed. “I’m not sure that moral applies to luxury goods. I mean, yes, delayed gratification, but—” She shook her head. “Anyway, babe, if you find yourself in a bind, anytime, you can call or come home.”

“Well—” Papa raised his eyebrows at her, looking mysterious, and she tilted her head. 

“Wherever home is.”

“What do you mean? Are you thinking about moving?” Mikey’s stomach swooped at the idea that the place he’d called home his whole life could just disappear. 

Mom patted his arm. “We’ll tell you our news over dinner. For now, we want to hear all about Coral and Seo-yun. How did you meet?”

“And _when_ did you meet?” said Papa. “It can’t have been going on for long, or I’m sure you would have told us sooner.”

There was no good response to that. The relationship had moved fast by anyone’s standards, but technically Mikey had hooked up with the others and started sleeping with Coral a couple of weeks before his parents’ vacation and hadn’t told them about it. He’d been afraid any fuss would frighten Seo-yun off. 

The rice cooker pinged, saving him from having to answer. 

“I can’t believe our boy’s all grown up and left home,” Mom said to Papa. “Remember when he wouldn’t stop crying unless Peter sang Bruce Springsteen songs?”

“Mom, that was twenty _years_ ago,” said Mikey. “I was a _baby_.”

“Twenty years.” Papa ran his hand over his head, sounding equally appalled. “God, it feels like five. You’d better open the champagne while we’re still young enough to appreciate it.”

 

*

 

In the end, Mikey opened a bottle of red wine instead, because dinner was ready, and the champagne wouldn’t have gone with the curry. They crowded around the small dining table, and Mom and Papa asked again how they’d gotten together, but that just led to Seo-yun giving a hilarious description of the underwater level of Panda Ball Penguin, complete with impersonations of the different octopuses and, because it was Seo-yun, no hint that Mikey and Coral had slept together on their first date, so that was okay.

And Mikey didn’t know what Dad had said to Coral, but she seemed to really like him.

It was actually a great dinner. Seo-yun was funny and talkative, and his parents didn’t embarrass him at all. Mikey suspected any fuss there might have been about his leaving home had been worked out between the three of them in France.

It wasn’t until the dessert course—raspberry chocolate brownies by Coral and Seo-yun’s rainbow popcorn—that Mom said, “Actually, we have some news too.”

Mikey tensed, despite himself. They _were_ selling the house! “What is it?”

“After you called to tell us you were moving out, we talked,” said Dad.

“And we decided to relocate to the Netherlands,” said Mom.

Mikey’s stomach dropped. “What?”

“Why the Netherlands?” asked Coral.

“We can get married there,” said Dad. “And if we live in the EU for two years, other European countries will have to recognize the marriage too.”

Seo-yun looked at Papa. “You’re already married.”

“Not legally. America still defines marriage as being between two people,” said Papa.

Mikey couldn’t believe this. He’d left them alone for six weeks, and they’d lost their minds. “What about Burke Premiere Events? What about the FBI? You can’t move to another country where you don’t even speak the language. You’re too old!”

“Watch it,” said Dad. “We’ve got a few years left in us yet. And most people in the Netherlands speak English or French.”

“We’re not selling the house—at least, not yet,” said Mom. “We’re going to lease it.”

“But—” Mikey saw Coral’s and Seo-yun’s faces and snapped his mouth shut. He couldn’t blurt out what he was thinking: that his parents must not have thought this through properly, or they’d see it was a terrible plan. Their lives were here, in New York. Their friends were here. _He_ was here. He’d been glad they were out of town, unable to question him or make objections, when he was moving out, but he didn’t want them gone for good! What if it didn’t work out with Seo-yun and Coral, and he needed to move back home? 

Everyone was waiting for him to say something, but he definitely couldn’t say that. He started again. “Was this Mozzie’s idea?”

Mom gave him a small, soft smile, and Seo-yun kicked his ankle, and Mikey deflated. He was being selfish. Being married was important to his parents. They’d spent years arguing with authorities that refused to acknowledge their relationship or didn’t provide enough spaces on their forms, from schools and banks to health insurance companies and government departments. It made Dad fume every single time. If they had to move to the Netherlands to fix it—

Mikey forced a smile. “Thanksgiving among the tulips?”

It was like everyone let out a breath. “I love you, baby,” said Mom. “I know it’s a big change.”

“It’s not that far, really. And there’ll always be a room for you, wherever we live,” said Papa at the same time. 

Dad took Mom’s hand and smiled across the table at Papa and said, “We’ve been really lucky in our lives. We want to make it official.”

“Again.” Papa smiled back at him.

“Wow, this is huge,” said Mikey. “I’ll be right back.” He went into the kitchen and looked out the window at the blurry neon lights of Koreatown in the rain, and made himself get excited for them. 

Coral pushed under his arm, up against his side. “You okay, Panda?”

He turned and hugged her properly, held her close, and after a moment, everything fell into perspective. If moving to the Netherlands would make his parents happy, then good for them. Mikey had a new life too. “I’m good,” he said. “I love you. And hey, we’ll have somewhere to stay in Europe now.”

“We should plan a vacation,” she said, reaching up to ruffle his hair. “And learn Dutch.”

He kissed her quickly. The others were waiting in the living room, which meant Seo-yun was alone with all three of his parents and probably needed backup. Mikey took a deep breath, grabbed the Krug from the fridge, and Coral helped him gather all the available clean glasses. They went back into the living room.

“—Burke Premiere International,” Mom was saying to Seo-yun. “MD’s going to be our security consultant.”

“Or retire,” said Papa, teasing Dad.

“Or find an actual job,” said Dad. “We’ll see what happens.”

“I think we should celebrate,” announced Mikey, looking around at his partners and his parents. His family. They’d always be family, wherever they were. “Who wants champagne?”

 

END


End file.
